SAN DIEGO, CALIF. — Broadcast engineers convened last week to
discuss new innovations in broadcast technology and to explore what the future
has in store for one-to-many communication. The forum was the annual Institute
of Electrical and Electronic Engineers’ Broadcast Technology Society fall
Symposium, with the Oct. 9-11 event attracting more than 110 participants from
the United States and nine foreign countries.

Technical presentations, tutorial sessions and roundtable discussions covering
such topics as over-the-air 4K video transmission, ATSC next-generation television
system development progress, single frequency network broadcasting technology,
implementation of Mobile DTV EAS, and new video coding technologies highlighted
the three-day event held at the Westgate Hotel here.

WHERE TV IS HEADING
Just as at this year’s NAB and IBC Shows, 4K video was a hot topic at the
Symposium. This was underscored by a tutorial presentation from InterDigital’s
Dr. Yan Ye on HVEC, which will likely be required to accommodate transmission
of ultra high-definition video to the home. Young-Woo Suh from the Korean
Broadcasting System reported on experiments in over-the-air transmission of 4K
video in Korea, and PBS’s James Kutzner, in his progress report on development
of the proposed ATSC 3.0 television standard, noted that it included
transmission of UHD television. The need for better and more realistic audio to
accompany these rising video resolutions was not neglected at the Symposium,
with presentations on new audio technologies and techniques that will be needed
for next-generation television broadcasting from Dolby’s Jeffrey Riedmiller,
DTS’s Jean-Marc Jot, and Graham Jones, who is a consultant for Fraunhofer.

CHANGE OF VENUE
The San Diego Symposium marked the first time in the event’s 63-year
history that it has been held outside the Washington, D.C. area. The move
reflected an effort by the BTS to try and stimulate interest in the Symposium and
raise attendance by making it more accessible to West Coast broadcast
engineers. (Plans are in place to hold the 2014 Symposium in San Antonio,
Texas.)

Symposium co-chair, Paul Shulins, commented on the new location: “This was a
big experiment and we’re very pleased with the turnout. We’re seeing a lot of
familiar faces, but we’re also seeing some new faces, which was our real
goal—to expose the Symposium to some new people. The venue is wonderful and the
people are wonderful here, and we’re hoping to expand it again next year when
we move it to Texas.”